Restorica Archive

Vergelegen was to regain its former splendour with the arrival of Lady Florence (“Florrie”) Phillips and her mining magnate husband, Sir Lionel. A patron of the arts, a lady of great style and impeccable taste she set about restoring the old homestead which at that stage was described as “almost an uninhabitable ruin”.

[Click here to view Part One. Thank you to the University of Pretoria and the Heritage Association of South Africa for giving us permission to publish. Original article appeared in the 1994 edition of Restorica]

The untimely demise of her first architect, Solomon, led to the appointment of Percy Walgate, a protege of Sir Herbert Baker, to restore, refurbish and extend the homestead. With his help, she tirelessly researched Cape Dutch architecture before undertaking the restoration of Vergelegen. No fewer than 195 sketches were produced by Walgate between November 1922 and September 1923.

The front door and windows altered by Samuel Kerr were restored to the original and the four main rooms opened up. To the annoyance of some of the older inhabitants of Somerset West. Lady Phillips added two modern wings to the house: one accommodating the bedrooms, and the other the service area. These additions were in fact extremely carefully executed and blend in very harmoniously with the old part of the house. Little competition for the main H ends and fronts thus occurs. The linking areas between the central H and the wings were roofed with plastered concrete slabs. 

The gable on...

In 1994 Wilma De Bruin, editor of Restorica, compiled an extraordinary article on the history of the Vergelegen Estate with the title 'Vergelegen: a perfect blend of past and present'. We have transformed this piece into a special series. After a brief introduction, part one looks at the first two centuries at Vergelegen and then tracks the estate’s decline in the early 20th Century under the ownership of Samuel Kerr. Thank you to the University of Pretoria and the Heritage Association of South Africa (previously the Simon van der Stel Foundation) for giving us permission to publish.

When governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel established his residence in the Cape in 1700, he named it Vergelegen (literally “Far Away”). And with good reason: It was situated a full day’s ride from Cape Town, which, at the close of the 17th century, was little more than a refreshment station for the VOC ships en route to the Far East.

The reason for this remote setting at the foot of the Hottentots Holland mountains for his 400 morgen estate, is self evident: It was, as indeed it still remains, one of the loveliest of the Cape Valleys.

Its scenic splendour has not diminished with the passage of time - even though Vergelegen is now little more than a 30 minute drive from Cape Town. Today, majestic camphor trees (now national monuments), the ruins of a mill on the banks of the Lourens River, and the famous octagonal garden still bear testimony to the former gubernatorial estate...

The captivating story below appeared in the 1982 issue of Restorica. It was compiled by Hymie Amoils and traces the origins, history and significance of the Poswohl Synagogue in Mooi Street Johannesburg. We visited this Provincial Heritage Site, now the Promise Land Pub and Restaurant, yesterday and noticed internal alterations taking place. It would be interesting to see if the necessary approvals from the Provincial Heritage Resources Authority Gauteng (PHRAG) have been secured. Thank you to the University of Pretoria and the Heritage Association of South Africa (HASA) for giving us permission to publish.

In early Johannesburg, Jewish religious life was dominated by three congregations, all of whose synagogues were built within the historic Randjeslaagte triangle. The oldest was the President St. Synagogue, founded in 1888; the Park Synagogue adjacent to Park Station, was founded in 1891 and opened by President Kruger in 1892, and the Orthodox Hebrew Congregation in Fox St. was founded in 1892.

After the Anglo-Boer War, more congregations were formed, and new institutions came into existence in order to serve the expanding Jewish community. Apart from other areas, three more synagogues were built in the Randjeslaagte area. Of the goal of six constructed in this area, only two remain: The Great Synagogue in Wolmarans St., built in 1913, which was brought into being by the amalgamation of the first three already mentioned, and the Poswohl Synagogue in Mooi St., built in 1921. The latter is situated in the central Johannesburg Business District, very close to the City Hall.

The Synagogue

Poswohl, a small...

The Kimberley City Hall is one of the city's major attractions and a declared heritage site. It may be hard for current visitors to imagine a time when the future of the building was in doubt. Below is an article describing heroic efforts to save the landmark building in the mid 1970s. It was published in Restorica, the journal of the Simon van Der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.

Like old soldiers, it seems, old buildings don’t die, they just fade away. But unlike old soldiers buildings can be restored to their former glory. Just such an example is Kimberley’s City Hall. Since the completion of new municipal offices in the city, the old hall had been unused and uncared for, its shell crumbling and cracking. This is the story of the saving of this historic structure by the use of complex drilling and pinning techniques.

A campaign was mounted to save the building and, when restored, to have it declared a national monument. But structural damage was severe and the materials dry and powdery. Using a dry diamond drilling technique and a method of pinning common in mining, the structural damage has been halted and the remainder of the renovation programme can be completed.

Kimberley began in 1871 with the discovery of the first diamond on Colesburg Kopjie which eventually become the Big Hole. A tented town mushroomed around the deposits, at...

The article below tells the intriguing story of the foundation stone of the planned but never built Centenary Memorial Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg. The piece was compiled by HSB Humphreys and appeared in the December 1975 edition of Restorica. It would be very interesting to find out where the foundation stone is today. Did it find a suitable home? Has it remained in storage? Has it disappeared? If you have any details please email heritageportal@gmail.com. Thank you to the University of Pretoria and the Heritage Association of South Africa (HASA) for giving us permission to publish.

In 1937 or early, 1938, the City Council of Pietermaritzburg launched a competition for the design of a Centenary Memorial Art Gallery, which, so far as can be ascertained, was won by a Durban architect, one Mr Geoffrey le Sueur.

In a subsequent publication (a Souvenir Hand-Book commemorating the Centenary of Pietermaritzburg, 1838-1938), the following appeared as an item on the programme for the proposed Centenary celebrations (Page 35):

"Monday, 24th October, 1938.
Laying of Foundation Stone of Centenary Memorial Art Gallery.

An order has been placed for the foundation stone of the Centenary Memorial Art Gallery, which stone it is intended shall be laid at the earliest opportunity at the site of the proposed building on the Market Square".

The foundation stone was actually laid by Field Marshall J C Smuts, then  Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, after the start of World War II, on virtually the same site where the new Library has now been built. World War II intervened and the gallery was never...

Below is a short but interesting article about German mercenaries who settled in the Eastern Cape in the 1850s and left behind some fascinating relics. The article appeared in the August 1976 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.

Queen Victoria's Secretary for War, Lord Panmure, recruited German mercenaries to fight in the Crimean War. After the war the mercenaries (known as the British German Legion) were sent with their wives and children as military settlers to British Kaffraria, the area beyond the frontier of the Cape Colony. They arrived at Panmure (now East London) in 1857.

Sir George Grey, Governor of the Cape Colony, persuaded the British Government to agree to a scheme of assisted emigration of Settlers, mostly agriculturists and general labourers, from the Prussian Provinces of the Uckermarck and Pomerania. These German Settlers, who were attracted from European feudalism by the promise of ownership of land and homes of their own, arrived in British Kaffraria in 1858 and 1859.

The families of both the German Legionaires and the German Immigrants suffered great hardship in those early days. At first the German Settlers were provided with tents until they built their settler homes which had sod-walls under thatch without ceilings. Due to the primitive conditions many of the babies and children died of pneumonia and other illnesses. Gardens were cultivated...